A Game of Dice
by 12500
Summary: A reimagining of how Ryuk got hold of his second death note.


"Two fives."

How _interesting_, Ryuk thought, sarcastically.

"Four fives". This should shake things up a little.

"You're a liar, Ryuk! You don't have four fives!" Doom announced this as if nobody else could possibly have had such a searing insight. Doom was such a petulant little brat.

"Of course you're right, Doom, it would be almost impossible for me to really have four fives." Ryuk removed his cup to reveal five fives.

"Well you still lied! So you lose!"

Ryuk flicked a coin in Doom's direction, and Doom let out a little yelp when it hit his eye. Aggravating Doom is about the most exciting thing to do in the Shinigami realm…in other words, this place is infuriatingly boring.

"Hey, Doom!"

"What?"

"Care for another game?"

"Sure. But this time I want to wager 5 coins!"

Doom seemed confident. Good.

"No. I have a much better idea."

"And what's that?"

"I want us to wager our notebooks."

Doom took a long pause. Even this dim Shinigami realized the great risk of the wager.

"Why don't you see what your friends think? Of course you wouldn't trust _me_ to tell you this is a good idea, but maybe Khan can help you decide. He helped you beat me in that game of poker we played last week, right? Or you could ask Zorrah."

Doom nodded, and wandered off to find his friends. Ryuk knew these Shinigami well, but more than that, he knew Shinigami in general. Khan and Zorrah would realize the stupidity of Doom's wager, but neither would pass up an opportunity to witness something this interesting.

Doom returned a short while later with both Khan and Zorrah.

"Well, both Khan and Zorrah think that I could easily beat you in a game of dice. After all, you had five fives that time before, and you still lost! You're terrible at dice, Ryuk. Maybe I'll let you buy your notebook back when we're done, but only for 50 coins. Or a hundred!"

"It's a deal."

By this time, several other Shinigami had got wind that Doom and Ryuk were wagering their notebooks, and had gathered in the area. The dull ones wondered who would win, and the smart ones wondered how Ryuk would.

Zorrah took it upon herself to adjudicate the proceedings. That was very like her, she was a stickler for rules.

"Am I to understand that this wager will depend on the result of a single round of dice?"

"Yes," Doom answered confidently. Excellent.

"Each of you has five dice in your cup. When I say so, you will begin shaking your cups, and you will turn them down on the ground when I say so."

Ryuk could feel Zorrah's satisfaction at the tense silence when she had stopped speaking. She enjoyed the pause for a moment.

"Begin shaking your cups now!"

The silence was punctuated by the rattling of the dice against the rusted metal cups.

"Turn your cups down now!"

The rusted cups scraped against the rocky ground, and the silence gathered once more.

"Ryuk, as you proposed the bet, you will make the first call." That's just fine.

Ryuk studied Doom's face. Doom seemed quite pleased with his hand. It probably wasn't better than a full house, though. Maybe he had three of a kind, or a straight. He would find out in a moment.

"Full house". In truth, Ryuk only had two pair. But that was of no concern for now: a hint of fear entered Doom's eyes, and Ryuk knew his hand was inferior. He also knew Doom would play it safe: a full house wasn't an unreasonable possibility.

Just as Ryuk expected, Doom decided to re-roll some of his dice. If he'd had three of a kind or two pair, he should only re-roll one of his dice. If he had a straight, however, he'd need to re-roll at least 3 dice in order to get a full house or better. Strictly speaking, you weren't supposed to know how many dice were being re-rolled, but it was easy enough to tell the difference between one and three dice rattling around in those loud cups.

The cup seemed rather full as Doom rattled his dice. He must have had a straight.

"Four threes."

Ryuk knew this was unlikely. But he didn't make the call. It wasn't the right time. He took the single odd dice from his two pair and re-rolled it. He had a one in three chance of changing his two pair into a full house.

Damn! He missed. But he was still fairly sure his hand was better than Doom's. Re-rolling a straight probably meant Doom had turned his good hand into a dud. And if it were true that Ryuk had a full house to begin with, the re-roll could very well have given him a hand of four. That's what Doom might think, anyway, if he were any good at this sort of thing.

"Four sixes."

"LIAR!" Doom shouted triumphantly. It wasn't immediately clear to Ryuk what had animated Doom to this extent. Perhaps he really did strike gold with his re-roll? That seemed very unlikely. Not that it necessarily mattered…a good hand wouldn't tell Doom whether Ryuk was lying or not.

Excitement brewed among the spectators. They muttered to themselves, wondering how the finale would play out. Whispers gradually became a cacophony of conversation.

"Silence!"

The Shinigami were quieted by Zorrah's outburst.

"It is now time for each player to reveal their dice".

Doom had two threes, a one, a four, and a six. A dud hand, just as Ryuk had expected. Ryuk had two sixes, two fours, and a one.

Doom began laughing maniacally. "I knew you were lying, I knew it! And now I win!".

Ryuk silently grinned, and waited for Zorrah to speak.

"Actually, Doom, that's not how the game works. If you call someone a liar, the game ends, but the winner is still the player who has the best hand, even if that player was the liar."

The color drained from Doom's already pallid, bloodless face.

"Of course, Ryuk has the better hand, so he is therefore the winner."

The fear on Doom's face quickly transformed into a twisted rage.

"Ryuk! You devil! You tricked me into thinking that liars always lose when they're caught! I bet you knew that rule all along, didn't you?"

"All I did was give you a coin. I didn't say anything one way or the other about the rules of the game. It's not my responsibility to make sure you know the rules."

Humiliated, Doom was forced to surrender his notebook to Ryuk.

Now, something _really_ interesting can happen.


End file.
